Contents of the MLSHUT.DOC file

MicroLink Personal Computer Users' Group

Presents

Shut The Box

v1.1, Copyright 1989, Bob Lancaster

INTRODUCTION

From coins covering numbers scratched into the deck of a fishing boat to the high-tech glitz of the TV game show High Rollers, Shut The Box in its many guises has been around since the 18th century, when it is thought to have been invented by fishermen in the Channel Islands.

Its simplicity (very young children easily understand and enjoy it), coupled with the fun of trying to "beat the odds" have made it an old standard, especially in the British Isles, where it remains a popular pub game to this day.

EQUIPMENT REQUIRED

Shut The Box will run on any IBM PC/AT/XT/PS2 or close clone thereof, with at least 64k of memory.

Although the game looks best when played on a color monitor, it plays just fine on a monochrome. (If you are using a monochrome or composite monitor with a color graphics card, please see "Black And White Mode" in the Games Parameters section below)

A Microsoft-compatible mouse, can be used. (Remember to load your mouse driver before loading Shut The Box).

If you run across a configuration on which the game will not run, please let me know (address at end of this file)!

The player then rolls two dice, and closes any combination of doors whose numbers total that of the dice. A player's turn ends when a number is rolled which cannot be matched by any total of the remaining open doors.

For example: A player's first roll is a six and a one, totaling seven. The player may shut either the door numbered seven, or the six and one, or the five and two, or the three and four, or the one, two, and four.

In our example, the player chooses to shut (pull down) the two and the five, leaving the board as you see in Figure 2.

On the next roll, the player rolls an eleven. The player can now shut the eight and three, or seven and four. The 9-2 is no longer valid because the two has already been closed. (Likewise, the 6-5 combination cannot be used).

A player's turn ends when all the doors have been shut, or until no door (or combination of doors) can be shut which total up to the sum of both dice. At this point the total of the numbers on the doors which have been shut are added to the player's score, plus an additional bonus of five points if all doors were shut.

All doors are then reopened, and the game passes to the next player.

After each player has played five turns, the player with the high score is the winner!

SCORING

At the end of each player's turn, his points from that turn (the numbers on the "shut" doors) are added to the display of his/her score, in the box toward the bottom of the screen.

This "scorecard" contains the player's name, score, and a graph of his/her score. The graph shows you how well you are doing against a perfect score.

A perfect round gives a player 50 points:

(1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 5 bonus points = 50)

With 5 rounds to a game, 250 points would be a perfect game. There are 50 dots on the scorecard, and one is filled every five points.

STARTING THE GAME

At this point, you should be able to play the game, and get a feel for it. You can read the rest of this document now at your leisure to clarify points, and to explain some of the features you might not understand your first few times through the game.

So, make sure you are in DOS, and type "MLSHUT" (without the quotes) and press return. Follow the prompts, and enjoy!

GAME CONTROLS

Shut The Box can be played either using the keyboard or a Microsoft-compatible mouse.

KEYBOARD INPUT

The last line on the screen always contains a list of keys that are valid at any point in the game, along with a one-word description of their function. (See "COMMANDS" below)

When selecting the doors to shut, you can use either of two keyboard methods:

1) Use the cursor left/right keys to point to a door and use the cursor up/down keys to open or shut it, or

2) Use the numeric keys to select the number of the door to open or shut.

MOUSE INPUT

Most of the keys listed on the bottom line of the screen can be entered via the mouse by pointing to the command and clicking the left button of the mouse. (If you are new to mice, "clicking" something means to place the mouse cursor on it and press the appropriate button, in this case, the left.)

Also, boxes higher on the screen with messages such as "Press return for next player" will allow you to click the box itself to continue, rather than the command at the bottom of the screen.

When selecting the doors to open/shut after rolling the dice, clicking an open door will close it, and clicking a closed door will open it (provided that the door was closed after the last roll of the dice).

So, experiment with the mouse, and see what works. I think it's fairly straightforward, but would appreciate any feedback on ways you think it could be improved (address at end of file).

COMMANDS AND TOGGLES

A number of commands and toggles are available to enhance play, or to allow you to tailor the game a little to suit your taste. Alphabetically, these are:

A (AllScores command)

This displays a scorecard of all players, to compare how everyone is doing in relation to each other. The highest score(s) are emphasized with a flashing arrow. Also, the two sets of lines jutting into the box from above and below show the range of scores currently in the TopTen scores file. The score is "graphed" as in the single-player scorecard.

B (BossKey command)

This displays a phony DOS screen. I'll explain for you honest folks: this key is used when you are playing the game on company time, and the boss suddenly appears. To return to the game, key OK at the phony DOS prompt.

Esc (Exit command)

Use this key to end MLShut before the game is over.

R (Roll Prompt toggle)

This allows you to get rid of the "Press return to roll" message, which some folks find annoying.

Defaults to "Yes", allowing the message to show.

N (Next Prompt toggle)

This allows you to get rid of the "Press return for so-and-so's turn" message, which some folks find annoying.

Defaults to "Yes", allowing the message to show.

D (Demo toggle)

This allows you to put MLShut into Demo Mode, in which the computer plays for all players.

Defaults to "No", allowing human play.

F (Fast Mode)

If you just want to play the game, and not look at some of the "animation" (such as the rolling dice), turning the Fast Mode on will do it.

Defaults to "No", showing all animation.

P (Pips Mode)

Allows you to select between dice with pips (dots) on them, or with numerals on them.

Defaults to "Yes", showing the dots.

T (TopTen scores command)

Displays the highest ten scores achieved on your machine. (This information is stored in the file MLSHUT.SCR. To clear the top ten, delete the file.)

K (Show "Can't use this roll!" message)

If you want Shut The Box to notify players when they roll a combination of dice which they can't use, specify this toggle.

Defaults to "No".

COMMAND LINE PARAMETERS

In the section above, several options are referred to as "toggles".

This simply means that they can be in a "Yes" or "No" state. And each of them has a "default", which is the state (either yes or no) in which they start out when Shut The Box begins.

I set the defaults to the way I felt was best, but you may think differently!

If you find yourself always changing one or more of the toggles each time you play, you might want to set them on the DOS command line instead.

Any toggle can be flipped to the opposite of its default (Fast Mode = "Yes", for example) by keying the toggle's letter following the program name (MLSHUT) when you start up the game.

So, if you wanted to set "Roll Prompt" to No, and Pips Mode to "No" (the opposites of their defaults), at DOS you would key:

"MLSHUT R P"

...without the quotes, followed by the Return key. Be careful that you leave a space between MLSHUT and the toggle(s), or DOS won't recognize what you are trying to do.

This allows you to tailor the game a little to your taste, and if you put this statement into a DOS batch file or menu processor, it will save you from setting these toggles each time you start the game.

Toggles only valid from the command line:

B (Black And White mode)

If you are running a composite monitor on a color graphics card, and the colors in MLShut are hard to discern, keying "MLSHUT B" at the DOS prompt will make MLShut run in Black And White Mode.

Defaults to "Yes" if Monochrome adapter detected, "No" otherwise.

T (Top Ten Scores)

This is different than the "T" command available during game play. It specifies whether a Top Ten Scores file should be saved, and is useful if you are running the game from a write- protected disk.

Defaults to "Yes".

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN VERSIONS

VERSION 1.0 - 01/11/89

Initial version, released to a few beta testers.

VERSION 1.1 - 01/14/89

Fixed some incorrect headings.

Modified documentation some.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks for the dozens and dozens of very nice letters and messages I got (and still get) in response to my last game, MLYaht. The positive response encouraged me to turn this one loose on the world...

I'd like to thank my wife Cindy and my daughters Rosamund and Genevieve for their tireless beta testing, and accurate descriptions (such as "ooooh!" and "blech!") of what they liked (and didn't like) about it.

Also many thanks to Greg Powers, whose comment "You know, I HATE games that do that!" led to a major change in the scoring system used.

A tip o' the hat as always to the gang at MicroLink (Bob Rodrigue, Jay Graham and David Storrs especially) for the encouragement and support they always give my PC endeavors.

Thanks to Eagle Performance Software, whose Shareware product "QWIK" allows for some blazingly fast screenwrites in Turbo Pascal. (For a demonstration on just HOW fast, start MLShut with both Demo and Fast modes set to "Yes", and hold on to your socks...) Programmers interested should contact Eagle at:

I would appreciate any comments, complaints, or wish lists of features you'd like to see! And, if you have any favorite old games you'd like to see programmed, I'm always looking for another which would interest me!

Also, if you like the game enough (and can afford) to send a small ($5) donation, I won't argue. And my wife will understand my long nights at the PC a little better!

Either way: Enjoy the game, and give copies of it to all your friends. And enemies. Strangers on the street...

I can be contacted by mail at:

Bob Lancaster / P.O. Box 5612 / Hacienda Heights, CA 91745

Or by modem at:

MicroLink PCUG BBS (AKA So. Cal Builder's Board) 818/961-7903

Please include the verion number of Shut The Box in correspondence.

Those interested in finding out more about MicroLink can contact the board listed above, or by mail: